Benjamin S. Yost

Professor of Philosophy

Benjamin S. Yost, a professor of philosophy at Cornell University specializing in capital punishment and the punishment of the disadvantaged, says that allowing inmates to select their own execution method does not make the process more humane.

Yost says:

“Brad Sigmon has chosen to die by firing squad because he is worried about South Carolina’s relatively untested lethal injection procedure. Providing someone with a choice between methods of execution does not, however, make the punishment more humane. What’s inhumane about the death penalty is that it kills someone, not that it kills someone in a slightly more painful way than the alternatives.”